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Perhaps other people here shared the same assumption that I did - that this essay was about moving from tech development as a contractor/employee to tech (devel

by blunte 9y ago

Perhaps other people here shared the same assumption that I did - that this essay was about moving from tech development as a contractor/employee to tech (development) consulting. It's not. It's about moving from developing to marketing. There's nothing wrong with that, but it was a let-down to me to discover that the path to riches meant mingling with the group of people I tend to like the least in a company. Also, I think it's fair to say that amongst departments in companies, marketing is much more likely to pay (and pay a lot) for a consultant, whereas IT is only likely to pay a lot for outside help when things are really, really desperate. Marketing is seen as revenue generating, and at many places, IT and (ironically) product development are seen as cost centers. This might as well have been an article about how to 100x your income by moving from your current job into a similar job in a fintech company. That's a bit like moving from serving tables at Denny's to Del Frisco's steakhouse. Most Denny's waiters are not prepared nor capable of making that transition.

kelvin0 9y ago
Thanks for the clarification, really this article had me confused. I was trying to 'extract' the bits that would bridge the technical side of things to the consulting side, but could not find it. Obviously now I realize he is talking about marketing. Nice read but unfortunately did not help/apply to me much.
- putnam 9y ago
  Do you think that there are not engineering consultants making five figures a week?
  - blunte 9y ago
    I'm sure there are. But I doubt there are as many, because of the inclination of marketing people to be willing to pay for outside help vs engineering that tends to enjoy problem solving so much that they only ask for help when things are really bad. Also it's a numbers game - there are more marketing departments than engineering departments (across all business sectors).
putnam 9y ago
Are you prepared or capable of making that transition?
- blunte 9y ago
  I'm definitely not capable of doing what he does. Interacting with people is something I can do very, very well. But it costs me a huge amount of energy (introvert). And working with marketing/sales people takes more out of me than with any other segment of the population! Regarding the Denny's -> Del Frisco's, that I could actually do well :). But that's because I have a special fondness for hospitality and providing people great experiences. I'd probably be foolish enough to open a restaurant someday, and I'd probably regret it later.
  - ScottBurson 9y ago
    Before you get too tempted, read this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15658437 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15658437
sethev 9y ago
How about if you invert it. If somebody came to you and asked for a system that can send emails when certain conditions are met in a database and track the results, would you assume that to write the program you would have to hang out with sales people? The actual work (in the two weeks to implement it) is development.
- bananaboy 9y ago
  It's still fundamentally development for the marketing side of a business though, rather than development for the product side. I think the problem that people are struggling with is that they can't see how this information relates to them if they are software developers looking to do consulting work on software. Patrick's article really is from a marketing angle, even though there is a software development component to it. That said, I think people are missing the key takeaway from the article. I think the most important thing in the article is right there in the heading "Clients Pay For Value, Not For Time". This is saying that you should frame your services in terms of a value proposition for the client. That is, how much money will you save them if they hire you to do X. Maybe X is "rewrite the backend to process transactions quicker" which will save them Y hours of compute time and reduce their AWS bill by Z a month.
  - mooreds 9y ago
    If you're interested in value based pricing, Jonathan Stark has a pretty decent free ecourse on it: https://expensiveproblem.com/ https://expensiveproblem.com/
    - bananaboy 9y ago
      That's awesome, thanks! The Freshbooks co-founder wrote something similar once too: https://www.freshbooks.com/ebooks/breaking-the-time-barrier https://www.freshbooks.com/ebooks/breaking-the-time-barrier
      - mpfundstein 9y ago
        Let's not forget Alan Weiss, who started this whole 'value based' consulting business. https://www.alanweiss.com/ https://www.alanweiss.com/
bananaboy 9y ago
If IT is really desperate, then even better! You need to frame it to the client in terms of what you are going to save them if they hire you. If they are up the creek without a paddle and everything is falling apart, then you can go to them and say "Fixing this will save you $X. I can do this for you, I've done this sort of thing before, here is a proposal, this will cost $Y".

by blunte 9y ago

kelvin0 9y ago

Thanks for the clarification, really this article had me confused. I was trying to 'extract' the bits that would bridge the technical side of things to the consulting side, but could not find it. Obviously now I realize he is talking about marketing. Nice read but unfortunately did not help/apply to me much.

putnam 9y ago
Do you think that there are not engineering consultants making five figures a week?
- blunte 9y ago
  I'm sure there are. But I doubt there are as many, because of the inclination of marketing people to be willing to pay for outside help vs engineering that tends to enjoy problem solving so much that they only ask for help when things are really bad. Also it's a numbers game - there are more marketing departments than engineering departments (across all business sectors).

putnam 9y ago

Are you prepared or capable of making that transition?

blunte 9y ago
I'm definitely not capable of doing what he does. Interacting with people is something I can do very, very well. But it costs me a huge amount of energy (introvert). And working with marketing/sales people takes more out of me than with any other segment of the population! Regarding the Denny's -> Del Frisco's, that I could actually do well :). But that's because I have a special fondness for hospitality and providing people great experiences. I'd probably be foolish enough to open a restaurant someday, and I'd probably regret it later.
- ScottBurson 9y ago
  Before you get too tempted, read this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15658437 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15658437

sethev 9y ago

How about if you invert it. If somebody came to you and asked for a system that can send emails when certain conditions are met in a database and track the results, would you assume that to write the program you would have to hang out with sales people? The actual work (in the two weeks to implement it) is development.

bananaboy 9y ago
It's still fundamentally development for the marketing side of a business though, rather than development for the product side. I think the problem that people are struggling with is that they can't see how this information relates to them if they are software developers looking to do consulting work on software. Patrick's article really is from a marketing angle, even though there is a software development component to it. That said, I think people are missing the key takeaway from the article. I think the most important thing in the article is right there in the heading "Clients Pay For Value, Not For Time". This is saying that you should frame your services in terms of a value proposition for the client. That is, how much money will you save them if they hire you to do X. Maybe X is "rewrite the backend to process transactions quicker" which will save them Y hours of compute time and reduce their AWS bill by Z a month.
- mooreds 9y ago
  If you're interested in value based pricing, Jonathan Stark has a pretty decent free ecourse on it: https://expensiveproblem.com/ https://expensiveproblem.com/
  - bananaboy 9y ago
    That's awesome, thanks! The Freshbooks co-founder wrote something similar once too: https://www.freshbooks.com/ebooks/breaking-the-time-barrier https://www.freshbooks.com/ebooks/breaking-the-time-barrier
    - mpfundstein 9y ago
      Let's not forget Alan Weiss, who started this whole 'value based' consulting business. https://www.alanweiss.com/ https://www.alanweiss.com/

bananaboy 9y ago

If IT is really desperate, then even better! You need to frame it to the client in terms of what you are going to save them if they hire you. If they are up the creek without a paddle and everything is falling apart, then you can go to them and say "Fixing this will save you $X. I can do this for you, I've done this sort of thing before, here is a proposal, this will cost $Y".